Dunkin’ and Wingstop stink. Wastewater backup in South Beach. Miami-area restaurant yuck
For the first time on this list, which goes back to the last decade, none of the failures came from routine inspections. All of the following inspections that closed Miami and Fort Lauderdale area restaurants came from customer complaints.
See what happens when you lift your voice? This segues into the rules and recommendations that precede our listing of those put in restaurant timeout.
RULES: What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties. These are the restaurants that fail inspection. A restaurant that fails inspection remains closed until passing an inspection.
We don’t do the inspections. We don’t control who gets inspected. We don’t control how strictly the inspector inspects. If restaurants in your part of South Florida are not included, we have nothing to do with that. If you see a problem and want a place inspected, contact the DBPR.
We don’t include all violations, just the most moving, whether internally or literally moving (because it’s alive or once was alive). Some violations get corrected immediately after the inspector points them out. But in those situations, ask yourself, why did the violations exist in the first place? And, how long would they have remained if not for the inspection?
We report without passion or prejudice, but with a takeout carton of humor (and, possibly, indignation and exasperation).
In alphabetical order...
Dunkin’ Donuts, 12561 Biscayne Blvd., North Miami: Complaint inspection, four total violations, one High Priority violation.
Hello, Dunkin’, our old friend...You’ve failed inspection again ... Blame the wastewater that was creeping/up through the floor drains, then began stinking...
No flies on donuts, a common problem among the many previous appearances on this Sick and Shut Down List of Dunkin’ Donuts stores. Nothing but rising waters lifting all odors.
The inspector saw “wastewater backing up through the drain floor inside the kitchen by triple sink and by walk in cooler door” and “standing wastewater throughout the kitchen and front counter.”
The inspector smelled “a strong odor to wastewater throughout the restaurant.”
The inspector “advised the manager to call a plumber.”
Presumably, the manager did because Dunkin’ was back slinging glazed and coffee after the next day’s re-inspection.
READ MORE: Roaches at the coffee machines, mold at the Slushee machine in a Miami 7-Eleven
Sarku Japan, 9417 W. Atlantic Blvd., Coral Springs: Complaint inspection, nine total violations, two High Priority violations.
A knife being used in the sushi area sat in room temperature, 75 degrees, water.
Only the mop sink area sank Sarku. Two dead roaches on the floor by the mop sink, and three roaches crawling on a wall by the mop sink got Sarku the big F for the day.
Sarku passed re-inspection the next day.
Wingstop, 5720 N. University Dr., Tamarac: Complaint inspection, 22 total violations, two High Priority violations.
“Objectionable odors in kitchen area by standing reach-in Horizon cooler and by fryers located at the cookline.”
But this place really reeked of I’ll-do-it-later philosophy to cleaning.
“Nonfood-contact surface floors under fryers, under reach-in coolers soiled with heavy buildup of grease, food debris, old French fries, rotten chicken wing, dirt, slime or dust” and a “buildup of food debris/soil residue on equipment door handles.”
What about the food contact surfaces? Some of them were “soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.”
The inside of the microwave had an “accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris.”
Encrusted cheese remained caked on a cheese machine and diced potatoes remained in a potato dicer machine, both from the previous day.
Old chicken wing sauces decorated the tops of containers and “uncovered to-go containers.”
“Observed cases of chicken stored in stagnant bloody water in the interior of reach in cooler.”
The Coca-Cola machine nozzle in the dining room area had “mold and a slime-like substance.”
And there was an “accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin” in the kitchen.
There was also an “accumulation of dead insects,” specifically flies. A couple on and inside a reach-in cooler at the cookline, one on top of a paper towel on the cookline and “0 or more dead flies in light shields at the point of sale station.”
In the kitchen, 5 to 10 flies were landing on once-clean, sanitized containers and another was landing on uncovered to-go plates. One brazen fly zipped about the dining room.
There was a roach at the front counter station.
Another reason to leave the ice in hockey. “In-use ice scoop stored on soiled surface between uses.”
Not only do the wiping cloths appear to be in light rotation, they measured zero parts per million for sanitizing solution.
Clearly, Wingstop just needed a good scrubbing. It passed inspection the next day.
Yardhouse, 1681 Lenox Ave., Miami Beach: Complaint inspection, six total violations, one High Priority violation.
As observed above, you never want to have standing water when the inspector does a pop-in visit. But you really don’t want to have standing water when you’re kind of a sports bar and the inspector drops by before a UFC Fight Night.
Yardhouse got that punch-and-kick to the head on Saturday.
Forget the salmon that was supposed “to remain frozen until time of use” and was thawed in its reduced oxygen bag. That’s unsafe and a violation, as is “hot water foot peddle missing from handwash sink.”
But a symptom of the real problem was “standing water at the warewashing station.”
“Observed wastewater backing up through the drain floor inside the warewashing area by the three-compartment sink when in use, and also by the oven in the back prep area.”
And the inspection “advised manager to call a plumber.”
The Yardhouse manager did so. Re-inspection was passed the following day.
